Happy Birthday Maddy!

Well, it's officially Maddy1's 2nd birthday today! I can't believe it!

The party was so much fun! I can easily say that we all had a great time. So, without further ado, here are some pictures:


Don't you just love this Mickey Mouse balloon -- it's taller than her!


Here is the lovely fruit basket. Not bad for my first! I learned a lot and will post some instructions on how I did it and some of the tricks that I learned in the process of creating it.


This is the Mickey Mouse cupcake cake! Notice the cupcakes are in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head and ears. I find that cupcakes are ALOT easier at this age!








Even Baby Lulu enjoyed the party!


Maddy sharing her cupcake with Daddy!


Mommy, Maddy and Ma!


So, as you can see, looks like it all went off without a hitch.

To my precious Madison, my first baby girl. Momma can't believe how much you've grown. What a big girl you are! Never could I imagine the little girl that you have become. So . . . well, loud :-) But in a good way most of the time. You are your own person and I've learned that even at this young age, no one is going to change that. You're loving, affectionate, bull headed . . . you've got a smile and giggle for everyone. You're persistent and strong willed and I know these traits will serve you well when you are older. To my little baby girl, I love you more than you will ever know.

Thank you Lord for entrusting us with this little girl. I pray that Hubby and I will be able to raise her in your way with your guidance. I pray for patience . . . for knowledge . . . for understanding and for wisdom. Help her to know how much she is loved.

Happy 2nd Birthday Madison!

Count down to the Mickey Mouse Birthday Extravaganza

Wrapping presents, so much to do!
Our little Maddy is turning 2!!

I think I'm a bit more excited than she is about this party. I've collected the latest Mickey Mouse party paraphernalia, food, food and more food!

Thank goodness we are all feeling better.

I'll be sure to get some pictures tomorrow and post them as soon as I can.

On another note, you know how I'm taking those steriods for this nasty sinus infection? Well, in order to get the dose of 6 pills in yesterday, the package said to take two at bedtime. Well, hello? If you do that, you will certainly not be able to sleep. So, I was up til 2 am this morning. However, it was some productive time. I began Maddy's Ladybug scrapbook. I'm so excited to have finished some pages. I'm really trying to get our photo albums and pictures up to date. And you know what was weird? I really enjoyed it! So, I've got about 6 more days of these steriods to take "at bedtime". So, maybe by the end of the illness, I will have completed a scrap book or two! Hidden blessings, huh! There always there, you just have to see 'em!

Well, I'm off to complete the never ending list of things to do prior to the party:

Today's List

1) Dust everything in the house
2) Sweep and Mop all floors (wood floor in living room area, tile in kitchen and
bathrooms)
3) Vaccuum floors
4) Clean toilets, tubs, sinks
5) Make Mickey Mouse silhouette decorating thingys


Tomorrow's list:
1) Clean and cut veggies for tray
2) Clean and cut fruit in fun & exciting shapes for fruit basket :-)
3) Fill balloons with helium
4) Pick up cupcakes and sandwiches from Walmart
5) Rearrange living room for max seating capacity
6) Arrange eating area and layout food
7) Hug and kiss my little Maddy (and my Baby Lulu!)
8) ENJOY THE PARTY!

Two sweet little blessings . . .

Well the cold/sinus infection has made it's way around our house. It's official, we are all suffering from it's effects. The sickness has forced me to slow down a little, which now in hind sight, has been nice. I've focused more on my little girls and less about scrubbing the floors or folding laundry.

Little Baby Lulu, she struggled to breath through the congestion. I sat rocking her while she drank her last bottle of milk. Her eyes were so heavy. She has not been napping well. I can imagine it's hard for her to breath. But, as she lay there in my arms, it was like she was finally able to close her eyes and fall asleep. I stared at her . . . her perfect little lips. It's sweet, the way she crinkles her nose. And at that moment, I just wanted to sit there and drink her up. After a few minutes passed, I walked slowly to her room and gently placed her in her crib . . .

A minute later, Maddy1 crawled up in my lap with a hand full of books. And we read. She made all the animal sounds, careful not to miss any. And then, we read the last book. She closed it's cover, looked at me and in the sweetest little voice said, "Rock." I melted. She turned around and put her head on my shoulder and I rocked her. I looked at her body. When did she get so big? Her legs stretched down so far. What happened to my little baby girl? I sang to her and she hummed. And then she did something she has not done since she was 6 or 7 months old --- she twirled my hair. When she was an infant and I held her, rocking her before putting her into her bed, she used to reach up and twirl my hair. After a few minutes, I heard her breathing change and I knew she must be asleep. I walked slowly to her room, trying not to wake her and placed her in her crib . . .

Thank you Lord, for these quiet moments. And thank you for reminding me of the blessings that you have bestowed upon me.

Things I never thought I'd have to tell my 2 year old

"Maddy! Do not run over your sister with your trike!"

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Maddy1: "Eyes, eyes!"

Me: "Yes, those are your sisters eyes, do not poke at them."

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Maddy1: "Hush, dacey, hush!"

Me: "Maddy, do not tell your sister to hush."

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Maddy1: "No, no, dacey, no, no!"

Me: "Maddy, let Mommy handle your sister, ok?"

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"Maddy, do not put your sister's dirty diaper in your mouth!"

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"Maddy, do not dig in the garbage. Garbage is a no, no. Yucky!"

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"Maddy, when you have poopies, please do not stick your fingers in your diaper!"

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"Maddy, don't sit on your sister, she's a baby!"

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"Maddy, don't lay on your sister, she's a baby!"

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"Maddy, do not throw toys at your sister . . . you'll give her an oweee."

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"No that's not poopie, that's a rock."

"No that's not poopie, that's lint."

(Do you see a pattern here? Everything that is dark colored is poopie!)

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"Maddy, do not put your hands in the toilet. That's yucky!"

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"Maddy, where did you get that cookie?" (Maddy walks to the garbage can and points)
"Maddy! Do not eat stuff out of the garbage, baby! It's yucky!"

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Next day . . . Maddy walks up to me licking an empty yogurt container.

"Maddy! Didn't Mom tell you yesterday not to eat stuff out of the garbage? Now go put it back and let's wash our hands."

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"Maddy, do not drink the bath water, baby. It will give you a tummy ache."

"Seriously, stop drinking the water!"

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REPEAT ALL OF THESE ABOUT A GABILLION TIMES A DAY AND THERE YOU HAVE IT . . . THAT'S WHAT I DO ALL DAY!

Wordless Wednesday

Genius . . . pure genius, I tell ya! Already reading at age 23 months and 8 months!

For more Wordless Wednesday, go here.

Mission: Birthday Impossible Update

Well, the invitations went out in the mail today. Check!

Next on the agenda: I spent over an hour yesterday surfing the net for a Mickey Mouse silhouette cookie cutter. Do you know how hard it is to find one of those things? Heck, it'd probably be easier to drive to Orlando (about 8 hours), go to Disney World and buy one myself! So, I'm still on the hunt, FedEx account # in hand . . . need to overnight it when I find it just to make sure I get one here before the party.

Visited Edible Arrangements yesterday. They've just opened a store in our local area. Love the idea! If you are not familiar with them, let me explain. Basically, they make fruit arrangements -- to look like flower baskets. So, rather than sending someone a flower basket, you can send them a fruit basket. Pretty clever, huh? Well, I thought it would be a good idea to have one of those there fruit basket thingys at the birthday party. So, I stopped in there to talk with them about ordering one for the big day. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed. I explained to the girl that I would need this basket for a child's birthday party. The pieces of fruit in the current baskets seemed to be a bit large for toddlers. So, I asked if they could cut the fruit into smaller sizes -- didn't have to be fancy or anything, just smaller. Y'all know what she said? No. She said that they are a franchise and they cannot alter the designs of the basket. Hello? What happened to customer service? Ok, ok, I understand the whole franchise thing, but I also understand that a toddler will pull a big 'ole piece of fruit off that basket and try to stick the whole thing in his/her mouth. Problem, don't you think? So, I thanked the nice lady for her time and thought to myself, I can make one of those things, no problem! (Disclaimer: I love Edible Arrangements and their ideas and I will continue to use them in the future. I'm not trying to say anything negative about the company, they just couldn't help me in my situation. Please check them out -- it's a great idea for friends.)

Well, hubby came home from work, greeted me and asked about my day. I told him my ordeal with Edible Arrangements. And then I told him my fabulous idea about making the basket myself. I went into great detail, explaining to him how I had figured out what cookie cutters to purchase, etc to make the fruit fun shapes for the basket. And how I could use the Mickey Mouse cookie cutter (which I haven't found or purchased yet) for the fruit, for the sandwiches and for the cookies. And do y'all know what his response to me was: "Oh yes, that's exactly what you need to do. One more thing. As if making the invitations weren't enough, let's just add another thing to your list of things to do! Let's make sure that when it's time for the party, you're completely exhausted and worn out, unable to enjoy any of it." Well, not exactly the response I was looking for, you know? It should have went something like this . . . "Wow, hun, you are so talented. I will be waiting, barely able to contain my excitement until the day I can view this lovely creation. Martha Stewart look out!" I know, I know. He's showing his concern for me. I can appreciate that. But, the fruit basket is a go --- I'm doin' it!

Well, I'm off to look for the cookie cutter . . . let me know if you just happened to see one some where!

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday, go here.

Is this a public restroom? No, it's my living room!

For all you moms out there, I'm soliciting your help on this one. Please leave a comment . . . please!

Well, I think it's time for the moment I've dreaded since Maddy1 was born. . . Potty Training (shhh! Don't say it too loud!)

Maddy1 has started pulling off her wet diaper and laying it anywhere she darn well pleases and then commences to peeing (my mother in law says that the proper terminology is #1 and #2) on my floor(eeewww!). I thought only boys did that kind of stuff. Girls aren't made to do that! So, I politely explained to Maddy1 that taking off her diaper and doing her busy on the floor, in front of others mind you, is certainly not very lady like. She looked at me, with that familiar blank stare that often accompanies many of my "big girl" talks, and then turned to watch TV. Surely she understood what I said, right? WRONG! Not five minutes later, new diaper found on the floor with big puddle of #1.

After discussing the events that had taken place with several confidants (I'd tell ya who, but I'd have to kill ya!) it was a unanimous decision --- Maddy1 is ready for potty training. If she is aware enough to know that the diaper is wet and is aware enough to know that she wants it off, then she is ready to start peepeeing (aka #1) on the potty right? Well, so I thought.

Day 1: 4 half peepee's in the potty (that means half the peepee went on the floor and then when we realized that she was peepeeing, we rushed her to the potty and she continued there, 4 peepee's in the panties, 2 poopies in the panties (ew!ew!ew!) and a couple near misses.

Had you been a fly on my wall yesterday, this is what you would have heard almost every 5 minutes:

Me: "Maddy, do you have to peepee?"

Maddy1: "No."

Me: "Maddy, do you have to poopie?"

Maddy1: "No."

Me: "Are you sure? Don't you want to sit on the potty and try?"

Maddy1: "No."

Me: "Maddy, look at Mommy. Where do we go if we need to peepee or poopie?

Maddy1: No response . . . just a blank stare

Me: "Right there (pointing to the potty). We go in the potty, right?"

Maddy1: "No."

Help! Please, for the love of all, tell me that this is normal. I can't keep putting a diaper on her if she is just going to continue taking it off. So, I have no other choice but to potty train.

Do you have any tricks of the trade? I'm not opposed to bribery, really!

I just need to get her trained before my house starts smelling like a public restroom!

You are amazing God!

Hi everyone - if you're looking for "How I Met My Prince Charming Part IV", it will be posted tomorrow. I felt the need to set aside Sunday as a day for my Lord and Savior. So, please bare with me as I share what he has revealed to me.

Sitting here, staring at Baby Lulu I am in awe of God's amazing blessing he has given to me and my husband. We truly have been blessed with two beautiful, healthy, happy girls. It's funny, when we found out we were having another girl only 6 short months after giving birth to Maddy1, we naturally (as any naive parents of one child) expected Baby Lulu to be a spitting image of Maddy1. We were sure of her blonde hair, blue eyes and loud, boisterous, outgoing nature. But now, as Baby Lulu has changed from this little infant that we considered a stranger into our little girl who recognizes our faces and voices, we have realized just how unique she is from her sister.

Maddy1:
1) Blonde hair
2) Blue eyes
3) Needs tender care when waking up
4) Immediately responds to music even as an infant
5) Dances the moment she hears music
6) Lights up the room with her smile and her laugh is contagious
7) Stubborn and very head strong
8) Got her first tooth at the ripe age of 1
9) Independent, needs little holding
10) Tender heart that can be broken with words or even the tone of your voice

Baby Lulu:
1) Red hair
2) Blue eyes
3) Wakes up quiet and content
4) So quiet you barely know she's there
5) Has the cutest little dimple on her right cheek
6) Perfectly content in Mommy's arms
7) Got her first tooth at 6 months of age
8) Always has a smile but rarely chuckles
9) Has a sweet spirit and loves to cuddle
10) Submissive, will follow where she is led

And this is just the beginning of the unique characteristics that make each girl different from the other. Oh amazing God, you have mapped out every detail of each child. How awesome you are . . . each hair, each crease, every sound, you, oh Lord, created it all.

"Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky
And you know them by name,
You are amazing God!
. . .You see the depths of my heart and you love me the same . . . You are AMAZING God!"

This is so neat! Wake-up calls are a long-standing tradition of the NASA program. Each day during the mission, flight controllers in the Mission Control Center will greet the crew with an appropriate musical interlude. The wife of Astronaut Patrick Forrester sent this to him on the shuttle for his wake up call on flight day 7 of STS-117 on . After the song, you hear Houston say, "Good morning Atlantis, that song is for Pat . . ." and Patrick Forrester replies, "Good morning Shane. That song captures what I think everytime I look out the window. So thanks to my wife Diane . . ."

Thanks to Chris Tomlin for such a beautiful song! You can hear the full song here.

Muted Monday

My version of Wordless Wednesday. I didn't have time to post, so I'll just share this pic. Pay close attention to her shirt :-)

Daddy's little girl

I thought that family (and some friends) might find this funny!

Maddy1 has gotten into the habit of blaming her Dad for things that she does that she knows her Mommy thinks is unacceptable. For example, the other night, it was just me and the girls (Hubby happened to be out of town) hanging out in the living room, near bedtime when all of the sudden, I heard someone pass gas . . . break wind . . . whatever you want to call it. Well, knowing that it was not me, and knowing that I was holding Baby Lulu and didn't feel any vibration come from her, I knew that the source of the sound had to have been Maddy1. So, here's how our conversation went:

Mom: "Maddy, what was that?"

Maddy1: Looking surprised . . . "Oh!"

Mom: "Maddy, did you just toot?"

Maddy1: Shaking her head . . . "No . . . Daddy!"

She is her Daddy's girl!!